February 5,
2007
Senior wins Churchill Scholarship to study math at
Cambridge
Robert Penna ’07 has been awarded a Churchill
Scholarship to study math at the University of Cambridge in the fall. Only
about 10 students in the United States are selected for the honor each
year.
Robert Penna ’07 was determined to do whatever
it took to get into his first-choice graduate program. So when he applied
to Churchill College at the University of Cambridge he hoped his hard work
and motivation would pay off.
Soon Penna realized his years of studying, research,
and determination not only opened the door to Cambridge but helped secure
one of the nation’s most prestigious awards—the Churchill
Scholarship. Penna heads to England in the fall to embark on what he
describes as “a year of intense math” at Churchill College
pursuing a Certificate of Advanced Study in Mathematics—Part III of
the Math Tripos. The scholarship covers all tuition and fees, which is
about $25,000, and includes an additional $20,000 for living expenses and
$1,000 for airfare.
Only about 10 such scholarships are awarded annually
to students for graduate study in engineering, mathematics, or science. The
Churchill Foundation, established in 1959, created the program to give
American students of exceptional ability and outstanding achievement the
opportunity to pursue graduate education at England’s University of
Cambridge. Students must have outstanding achievement in academic work,
high scores on the Graduate Record Examination, capacity for original,
creative work, and demonstrated concern for the critical problems of
society. Other participating institutions include Harvard, Princeton, Yale,
Stanford, and Cornell universities.
Penna, of Eden, N.Y., says he applied to the program
because it is a unique opportunity to explore different areas of
mathematics. “I can broaden myself a bit now. You can understand the
physics better by seeing it from different perspectives,” he says.
The graduate program at Cambridge will allow Penna to
strengthen his background in advanced mathematics and
physics and, ultimately, he says, prepare him to move across
disciplines. One other added perk, he notes, is that it will afford him his
first experience traveling abroad.
“I will be part of an international community,
and the teaching style will be different. The more approaches I experience,
the deeper my understanding will be,” he says.
Penna, who will complete a bachelor of arts with
honors in mathematics and a bachelor of science degree in physics this May,
has coauthored three scientific papers during his undergraduate career, one
published in the Journal of Geophysical
Research and coauthored by Alice Quillen,
associate professor of physics and astronomy, that deals with space weather
and coronal mass ejections. Another paper scheduled for submission to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society describes a relationship between magnetic pressure
and viscosity in accretion disks, a research area Penna has been
investigating for several years with Eric Blackman, professor of
theoretical astrophysics.
Blackman says Penna has the right skill sets and
motivation to become a successful scientist. “One of the things that
struck me about him is that he seems to be one of the most
research-mature undergraduates I’ve encountered. Some students
don’t get on that path until they reach graduate school and even then
some have trouble adjusting and balancing the work and research.”
When Penna finishes the master’s program at
Cambridge, he plans to return to the United States and pursue an advanced
degree in physics or astrophysics.
“He has the right balance of confidence,
ability, humility, and independence,” says Blackman. “He
doesn’t just do what he’s told; he goes off and finds out what
he needs to know.”
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